Legio IV Italica

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The Legio IV Italica ("Italian Fourth Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army raised in AD 231 by emperor Alexander Severus. The legion remained in existence as late as AD 400.

History[]

The legion was raised during the reign of Alexander Severus in 231, with Italian and Pannonian soldiers, and perhaps took soon part in the expedition against the Sassanids in 231–231.[1]

Its first commander was an Equestrian praefectus legionis Maximinus Thrax, the former common soldier and future emperor; reflecting the growing trend of appointed equestrian legati in place of senatorial ones.[2]

The legion participated in all of Maximinus' campaigns in the Danubian area in 235–238.[3] Under Gordian III, it returned to the eastern frontier in 242–244 to fight the Sassanids under the prefect Serapamo,[4] with its base set perhaps in the province of Mesopotamia.[5][dubious – discuss] Nischer speculates it may have later been based in the Gaul under Diocletian.[6]

The Notitia dignitatum attests the unit as a pseudo-comitatenses legion under the magister militum per Orientem. It perhaps survived until the reformation of Justinian in 545.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ Herodian, VI, 3.1; Parker, 176.
  2. ^ Herodian, VI, 8.2–3; Historia Augusta, "The Two Maximini", 5.5; Gonzales, vol.I, p. 165.
  3. ^ Gonzales, p.166
  4. ^ Historia Augusta, "The Three Gordians", 25.2; Ritterling, c.1326; Gonzales, p.166.
  5. ^ Luttwak, p. 231–232; Gonzales, p. 166.
  6. ^ J.Kromayer e G.Veith, p.483, map 54, illustration 147; Nischer, p. 22.
  7. ^ Diehl, p. 146; Runciman, p. 125; Gonzales, p. 166.

Sources[]

Primary sources[]

  • Herodian, Storia dell'Impero dopo Marco Aurelio, VI.
  • Historia Augusta, "The Two Maximini". Note that the Historia Augusta is a late-4th-century hoax.
  • Notitia dignitatum, Orientis.

Secondary sources[]

  • C. Diehl, Justinienne et la civilisation byzantine au VI siecle, vol.I, New York 1901.
  • Gonzalez, Julio Rodriguez (2003). Historia de las legiones Romanas (in Spanish). Madrid.
  • J. Kromayer e G. Veith, Heerwessen und kriegfuhrung die griechen und romer, Munich, 1928.
  • E. Luttwak, La grande strategia dell'impero romano, Milan, 1976.
  • J. C. Mann, A note on the legion IV Italica, ZPE 126, Bonn.
  • E. C. Nischer, The army reforms of Dioclatian and Constantine and their modifications up to the time of the Notitia Dignitatum, Journal of Roman Studies n.13, Londra 1923.
  • H. M. D. Parker, "The legions of Diocletian and Constantine", in Journal of Roman Studies 23, 1933, London.
  • Ritterling, Emil, [1]
  • S. Runciman, La civilizacion bizantina, Madrid 1942.
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